Property battles over land use permits and zoning can escalate to violence and death.

Rockne Newell had owned his patch of Monroe County woodland for three days when he got the inkling it wouldn't be the peaceful home he had hoped.

"Butch Kresge asked me … what I intended to do with it," Newell recalled in a court filing. "I told him I was going to build on it."

Kresge, a neighbor who later became a Ross Township supervisor, told Newell in 1990 to rethink his plans.

"We are not going to let you. The best thing you can do is sell that land to me and move on down the road," Kresge allegedly said, according to Newell's 2002 court filing.

A dispute over Newell's lack of township permits to live on the property smoldered for 23 years after that exchange.

It exploded in a blaze of gunfire Monday night at the township supervisors' monthly meeting.

As he was driven away from the meeting hall where two men lay dead and another, mortally wounded, was being loaded into a medical helicopter, Newell told state troopers, "I wish I killed more of them," court papers say. Four others, including Newell, were wounded.

State police said Newell told them he opened fire at the meeting because it was the only time the people he blamed for forcing him off his land — Kresge, other supervisors and the township's lawyer — would be in one place. The township had bought Newell's land in a sheriff's sale days before for just $1,806.

James V. LaGuardia, 64, and Gerard Kozic, 53, both of Saylorsburg, died at the scene. Township zoning officer David Fleetwood, 62, was pronounced dead at St. Luke's University Hospital in Fountain Hill about an hour after the shooting. Kozic's wife, Linda, was shot in the leg and two others suffered less serious injuries.

Newell, 59, is charged with three counts of criminal homicide, two counts of attempted homicide and one count of aggravated assault. He is being held in Monroe County Prison without bail after being treated for a gunshot wound to the leg, which happened when he was tackled by two men at the scene.

While such deadly outbursts are rare, it's not uncommon for disputes over land use permits and zoning to become tense.

"If it involves where you live, where you work, the loss of your only asset, any kind of situation that is so close to home, it can cause an emotional reaction," Alburtis solicitor David Knerr said.

Municipal officials, charged with protecting the health and safety of residents, often zealously pursue those who don't comply with requirements to properly handle sewage and trash or meet construction requirements.

On the losing side of the law, owners can face steep fines and court orders to remove costly additions to their properties.

People sometimes see code or zoning enforcement as an intrusion on their right to do what they want with their property, York County land use attorney William Hoffmeyer said.

"It doesn't matter how miserable it looks from everyone else's point of view, it's still my castle," Hoffmeyer said.

Feuds over property are usually resolved in a civil manner, with perhaps lingering grudges between neighbors or against local officials the worst fallout. But sometimes such disputes end in tragedy.

In Lancaster County, a long-running conflict between Elizabeth Township officials and 65-year-old Daniel Groff reached a crescendo when the township hired a contractor to clear his junk-strewn property in 1999. Brandishing a shotgun atop a front-end loader, Groff's standoff with police ended when he took his own life.

In 2003, Steven Bixby took the lives of two South Carolina sheriff's deputies in a 14-hour shootout that stemmed from his objections to the state taking a strip of his Abbeville front yard for a highway-widening project. Bixby, convicted in 2007 of both murders and sentenced to death, was allegedly part of an extremist property rights group.

Last year, a Long Beach, Calif., man was charged with shooting a code enforcement officer in the face when the officer arrived with an inspection warrant and a cleaning crew to remove hoarded items from the home.

The two-decade clash between Newell and Ross Township officials is detailed in a pair of lawsuits that resulted in a Monroe County judge ordering Newell off his property and a July 25 sheriff's sale that enabled the township to acquire it.

Kresge said he and the other Ross Township supervisors, Howard Beers and Tina Drake, have been advised not to talk about the shooting or events leading up to it. He noted he was not a supervisor when he had the 1990 conversation with Newell.

Township solicitor John Dunn did not respond to telephone and email messages.

According to court papers, the 1.1-acre property that Newell bought for $500 in 1990 was worthless as a building site.

The deed contained the disclaimer, "The above premises are considered wetlands," with clay soil that cannot support a septic system. "No building permit is obtainable for construction thereon."